Old Loves, Old Lies
by Baron Karza von Karnstein
Summary: What if, instead of finding the remains of Dracula, Liz Blaine and Luke found the body of Barnabas Collins? A Dark Shadows Dracula II Ascension Crossover. Rated M for language and violence.
1. I

**Old Loves, Old Lies**

**-by Baron Karza von Karnstein**

**-dedicated to Diane Neal**

**N.B. I do not own any of these characters. Dan Curtis owns all the Dark Shadows Characters. Joel Soissons and Patrick Lußier own all the Dracula II: Ascension Characters **

**I**

**Introductory Voice-Over:** "**_My name is Elizabeth Blaine. Night falls over an abandoned recreation hall in New Orleans. There, a group of medical students have made an astonishing and frightening discovery: the body of a dead man who is not dead. In an atmosphere pregnant with tension and uncertainty, some among them seek to learn from their discovery, with the aim of finding a cure for a fatal disease. Others seek to profit from this new finding. But none of them know of the terrible betrayal and the terror that is awaits them._**

Following Lowell's instructions, Liz, Tanya, Kenny and Luke had taken the body down to the empty pool of the decrepit recreational facility. There, they found a strange, silent, hostile, curly-haired young Briton named Eric waiting for them. When they asked him who he was, Eric would only say that he was an agent of the man who had telephoned Luke at the morgue with an offer of a substantial sum of money for the body.

Eric had a large, iron, X-shaped Saint Andrew's Cross set up in the middle of the pool. The Cross was leaned backwards at about forty-five degrees. Two pieces of thick pipe, bent to just over ninety degrees, their ends welded to the arms of the "X", held the Cross up from the grimy floor of the pool. On either side, and slightly in front of the forward-facing aspect of the Cross, were two tall poles, each supporting an array of what appeared to be floodlights on top.

If the sadomasochistic connotations of the Saint Andrew's Cross were not enough, the fact that Eric had iron—instead of the usual leather—restraints added to the disquiet of the four medical students. But Eric did not allow their increased disquiet to set in. He ordered them to remove the body from the bag, and place it upon the cross, binding the wrists and ankles with the restraints. In addition to his brooding look, there was an air of danger and of violence about Eric. The four complied.

Several feet in front of the Cross, Eric had set up a table, and had placed a hard metal case on top of it. Satisfied that the limp body was secured on the Cross, Eric turned towards the table, and opened the case as soon as he reached it. He pulled out what seemed to be a battery-operated web cam, closed the case and set the web cam device atop the case. Next to the case lay a switchbox, linked by cables to the two arrays of floodlights high above the Saint Andrew's Cross on either side.

"You know, you're too far away to get a good view…" began Kenny.

"Relax, college boy. This isn't something I just picked up from Radio Shack."

"Hey! Who you calling 'boy', motherf—"

Kenny was silenced by the swift appearance of a Smith&Wesson automatic in Eric's hand, an automatic whose barrel Eric now pointed between Kenny's eyes.

"Let's not get excited, here. I don't need any one of you anymore. The only reason I haven't gotten rid of you already is that your pathology Prof insisted on keeping you alive. I need him for the next little bit, but I will not be pushed."

"LOWELL!" exclaimed Liz, the fieriness of her voice matching the red of her long, flowing hair. "What did you do to him?"

There was a steely determination in her voice, and even Eric had to admit he was afraid that those angry green eyes would drill right through his heart, as she stepped forward towards him, ignoring the pistol he now trained on her.

"Lizzie, be careful!" The warning hissed out of Tanya's mouth louder then she had intended.

"Yeah, the bastard's got a gun!" added Luke, anger in his voice, as he moved to the side and away from Liz, forcing Eric to shift his glance and eventually the barrel of his S&W away from her. It was certain that Eric would take out one of the four with his first shot. But would he get a third, or even a second before the others fell on him?

"Easy, easy, now…everybody just take a deep breath."

"Lowell!" Liz cried out "Where are you?"

"Right up here, darling!"

Lowell's mechanized wheelchair came into view at the door of the pool. He brought it to just a few feet of the edge of the pool, so he could look down into it. His voice was amplified. Luke realized that there must have been loudspeakers pre-positioned in the pool room. He also noticed that Eric had not wheeled around to face Lowell. Something was not right.

"What's going on, Lowell?" he asked.

"What's going on, Luke, is that we have the opportunity of a lifetime. I have been searching for a real-live vampire for years. Too many hacks and wannabe producers have crapped out all kinds of B.S., but not one empirical study of vampires has been published. My friends, we are going to be pioneers. Who knows what a vampire's blood will do to advance medical science?"

"Yeah, sounds real nice, Lowell!" responded Kenny. "But who the hell is this jerk here?" He pointed at Eric, who still held the S&W in his hand, albeit limply at his side, the barrel pointed downwards now.

"Kenny, Kenny research like this costs money. Who do you think is going to give me a grant if I write a proposal for research on the hematopathology of vampires? The NIH? The usual foundations? I don't think so. But I have a couple of backers who are willing to fund me. Eric here is their on-site observer. He's here to make sure they get their money's worth."

"Well, what about the gun, then?" asked Tanya "And what about that…that thing over there that looks like it's straight out of an S&M club?"

"It IS straight out of S&M club, sunshine!" responded Eric with a leer on his face as he replaced his pistol. "With a few modifications, of course. Would you prefer our friend over there were free when he wakes up?"

This seemed to satisfy Tanya.

"As for the gun, I have some pretty expensive equipment set up back here." explained Lowell. "Corning 12-pettes, DG-2 microscopes, a GC/MS machine, monitors, a couple of laptops—all of which could be modified to be 'dual-use.' No matter how comprehensive your insurance is, you always need supplemental .45-calibre coverage. Especially if you have a mobile lab like this."

"But this bastard threatened to kill us, Lowell." pointed out Luke "He said 'I don't need any one of you anymore…'"

"When you're excited, you say things you don't mean." replied Lowell. "Isn't that right, Eric?"

There was no response.

"Isn't that RIGHT, ERIC?" There was annoyance in Lowell's voice now.

"Yes…" Eric grudgingly conceded. "That's right, Professor!"

"Good! Now that we got that out of our systems, maybe we can get to work." concluded Lowell. "Kenny, Luke, Tanya, you stay down there with Eric until our friend comes to. Liz, darling, why don't you come up here?"

Lowell turned his wheelchair back towards the door and led the way. Liz followed him.

"It seems you have quite an operation, here, Lowell!" Liz commented when she saw all the equipment that had been set up in the other room. "Were you planning to clue me in at any point?"

"Liz, you had enough to worry about. I know you love me. And I really do appreciate you waiting on me hand and foot Plus, there was school and the morgue…I didn't want to burden you…"

"Burden me? Burden me with the news that you had funding to try to find a cure? Burden me with the possibility that there might be some hope that I'm not going to be a grieving widow sometimes very soon?"

"Hope is not a guarantee, Liz. You should know that. We're both scientists. We deal with facts and probabilities, not hopes and speculations …"

"For God's sake, Lowell!" interrupted Liz "We're not writing a paper! I'm talking about you! Your survival! Your beating this!"

"We're not married, Liz!" replied Lowell testily. "And you seem to forget that **_I_** am the one stuck in this wheelchair! **_I _**am the one who craps and pisses his pants like a baby."

It was as if he had slapped Liz across the face.

"Luke's right, Lowell…" she began, after recovering from her shock at those stinging words. "You ARE a big egotistical jerk."

With that, Liz turned and made to storm out of the back room.

"Liz, wait…I'm sorry…I…"

"I'll send Luke up here. He got straight A's in Lab Techniques. He can help you better than I can!" declared Liz, her voice fading as she stepped out the door.


	2. II

**Old Loves, Old Lies**

**-by Baron Karza von Karnstein**

**-dedicated to Diane Neal**

**N.B. I do not own any of these characters. Dan Curtis owns all the Dark Shadows Characters. Joel Soissons and Patrick Lußier own all the Dracula II: Ascension Characters **

**II**

"He doesn't look so strange at all." commented Tanya. "In fact, if it weren't for the clothes, I'd say he looks like just any other embalmed cadaver."

"That's what we thought, until we checked his teeth." responded Liz, unconsciously fingering the band-aided forefinger which she he inadvertently pricked upon a fang of the body of the man bedecked in late 18th-Century attire which now lay spread-eagled and inert before them.

"How the hell did you guys find him?" asked Kenny

"Luke was doing a routine run for the guys in the 7th District. Some bar manager in New Orleans East found the body in his basement when he was doing inventory this morning. Luke brought him into the Morgue."

"Why didn't you start opening him up?"

"I had the microbio midterm 90 minutes after Luke brought him in, so we only started to try to cut off the clothes. I had my scissors ready when Luke says "Hey Liz, you notice something funny about this guy's clothes?'

"I go 'What do you mean?' Luke goes 'He definitely didn't get them at Walmarts'…at least not within the last…I don't know…hundred years or so!'

"So I say 'Maybe he was dressed up for a rave.'

"Then Luke says, 'You know, before I cut them up, I want to see where he got his clothes.' Then he opens the guy's…jacket, I guess, we had already taken off this scalloped green cape he was wearing…so, anyways, Luke opens up his jacket and starts looking for labels. I'm like 'C'mon Luke, I've only got an hour or so before I have to clean up and get out of here!' But Luke wasn't listening. He just opened the guy's jacket, and was looking for labels.

"After a minute or so of looking, Luke stands back. He has this puzzled look on his face, and he says 'That's strange! There are no labels!' So, I say 'If it was made custom, maybe they don't have labels.' Luke goes 'No, no, no! You're wrong there, Liz! I played Romeo in a college production. We had all our costumes tailor-made by this company that specialises in custom costumes. They had their labels on the inside of every item. They're proud of their work!'

"So I say 'Luke, you've been watching too many CSI reruns. Tell you what, let's get his costume off, and I'll leave you five lines on the form so you can pretend to be H. and write a full description of his clothes.' But Luke wasn't having any of it.

"He asks me 'Do you think…' and then just stops there in mid-sentence. I'm like 'Luke, I have to be out of here in 45 minutes! Can you cut to the chase, please?' Luke goes 'Do you think this could be a…vampire?' He had this strange, but certain conviction in his voice. I half-believed him for a moment.

"Then I go 'OK, Luke, if you're not going to help me, get out of my way so I can do my job. Really! The sci-fi geek thing is getting old!' But Luke's not budging. He goes 'Humour me, Liz! Check out his teeth! If they're all normal, I swear, I'll help you finish up here, and I'll even get started on the cutting. I'll have him all laid out by the time you get back from microbio.'

"At this point, I figure 'Oh, well, if it will FINALLY light a fire under Luke's ass, what the hell?' "

"So you…checked his teeth?" interjected Tanya.

"Yeah…I checked his teeth." replied Liz, crossing her arms and tucking her wounded finger away out of sight of the others.

"And?"

"And, Kenny, we saw what we saw. Fangs. Like on a dog or a wolf."

"No chance they're some trick teeth? You know, like you can get at those novelty supply places?"

"No, they went all the way straight into the gums."

"Could they have been implants?"

"Didn't have time to check. The guy's breath was soooo…..foul and strong! Both Luke and I started to gag. I ran to the ladies room and started to heave." Liz deliberately withheld the fact that she actually went to the phone to inform Lowell of their discovery. "Then, when I get back Luke says he got this strange call promising him this bundle of money if we bring the body here."

"Like, how much money are we talking about?"

Liz told them. Kenny whistled.

"Damn, girl! Those are some serious Benjamins! I wouldn't have to hustle knock-off Viagra with that kind of bling-bling!"

"Yeah, Kenny!" added Tanya, the sarcasm dripping with every syllable. "I'm sure that's exactly what Liz and Luke had in mind when they took up this offer."

"I don't KNOW what we were thinking, Tanya!" Liz cut in. "The implications are all so…frightening…but…maybe if…"

"What?"

"I don't know."

"You said 'Maybe if'…what do you mean Liz?" gently asked Tanya, encouraging Liz to feel comfortable enough to share her thought.

Liz took a deep breath, and then slowly exhaled.

"I thought maybe if we could actually find something good out of this…"

"You mean something to help…Lowell?"

Liz closed her eyes and nodded after a moment.

"Oh, come on, Liz! You know better than that! You're second year! You know that the chances of Lowell recovering…"

"SHUT UP, Kenny!" snapped Tanya.

"No, no…it's OK!" Liz brought her hands up, palms out, fingertips high as if she were signaling "Stop!" to an oncoming vehicle. "He's not saying anything that I haven't thought to myself for the past two years."

She opened her eyes, the beginnings of a tear forming in each.

"It's just that sometimes…to keep hope alive…you have to believe in crazy miracles…It's either that, or you end up going crazy yourself."

Tanya reached out to Liz with her left arm. Her left hand touched Liz's right bicep, and slowly caressed it.

"Liz, I know. We all know, even Kenny over here, despite the fact that he can be incredibly insensitive."

"Yeah…my bad, Liz. I shoulda watched what I said."

"It's OK, Kenny. Thanks, you guys. You are a great comfort. Really. Luke too. It's just that…well, I think Luke has feelings for me, but I can't reciprocate. I mean, he's a wonderful guy and all, but…it's just that I love Lowell. Sometimes, I have this sinking feeling that I'm failing two men, Lowell AND Luke…"

"Yeah, Luke did cop to having the hots for you, Liz." said Kenny. "But don't worry, he understands the situation, and he won't make things any harder for you."

Liz wiped her tears away with the backs of her hands.

"I know he understands, Kenny. Thanks for reassuring me. But, I can see the hurt in his eyes sometimes. Understanding doesn't always mean accepting…"

"Where am I?"

Liz, Tanya and Luke snapped their heads away from each other and towards the source of the new voice, a deep voice. The eyes of the body bound on the Saint Andrew's Cross were open…and staring intently at them…


	3. III

**Old Loves, Old Lies**

**-by Baron Karza von Karnstein**

**-dedicated to Diane Neal**

**N.B. I do not own any of these characters. Dan Curtis owns all the Dark Shadows Characters. Joel Soissons and Patrick Lußier own all the Dracula II: Ascension Characters **

**III**

"Can you hear me?" the figure asked the three of them. "Can you understand me?"

"Y-yes…we understand you…" responded a suddenly sheet-white Liz.

The figure securely fastened to the Saint Andrew's Cross fixed Liz in his glare, looking deep into her eyes, examining her in detail as if he were a crime scene investigator looking at a minute hair. Slowly, a spark of recognition took.

"Abigail…Blaine…You are still alive…but in these clothes…what year is this?"

"This…is 2002…"

There was a silence as the figure slowly digested this information.

"But what are you doing here, Abigail?" The figure asked, the eye muscles contracting in perplexity. "You died over fifty years ago."

"This shit is getting WAY TOO WEIRD!" wailed Kenny, as he grabbed both Liz and Tanya's upper arms, and began to drag them away. Liz wrenched free of Kenny's grasp. Tanya, at first, let herself get pulled away by Kenny. Once she saw that Liz was not moving, she too broke free, and approached her friend, eyes staring at the newly-speaking figure on the Saint Andrew's Cross.

"Abigail…Blaine…was my grandfather's sister." declared Liz "She died thirty years before I was born."

The figure's eyes widened in sudden comprehension.

"The resemblance is striking!" the figure commented after a few seconds.

"Yes, I saw the pictures…It seems you know a lot about me…Sir…but I don't know much about you."

"Is that why you…have me restrained like this?"

There was an awkward silence.

"It's just that…when we found you…and when we looked into you mouth…"

"WHERE did you find me?" asked the figure, a sudden look of uncertainty and anxiety upon his gaunt face and his baggy eyes.

"Over in New Orleans Ea…"

"NEW ORLEANS!" exclaimed the figure. A moment of silence passed. "Yes, yes, I can understand where…"

The figure turned his head back, until he was staring straight ahead, not at anyone or anything, but intently, though, as if lost in a trance. He seemed to be talking to himself.

"But why this time?"

"I don't…understand…" said a bewildered Liz."

The figure turned back to Liz. The face was calm.

"You mustn't fear me, Ms. Blaine." the figure said in a gentle voice. "I am a friend of your family."

The figure saw that Liz still did not believe, or did not accept what he said.

"Barnabas Collins is my name."

"Oh my God!" Liz cried out. "Then all those stories the Senator told me when I was a kid…they were TRUE!"

"The Senator?"

"Y-yes…my cousin, Senator David Collins."

"Senator…David…Collins?" Barnabas repeated with disbelief.

"Liz…" began Tanya "This is starting to creep me out! Do you wanna tell us what's going on here? Please, honey?"

Liz was still looking directly at Barnabas, whose eyes were locked on hers. Or was it the other way around? Liz still felt a high degree of apprehension. Yet…there was something in those eyes that seemed quite human…quite familiar. Liz almost had the feeling that the man bound on the Saint Andrew's Cross would be her protector, that he would never harm her even if it meant his own peril…

"My cousin, David…he's about twenty years older than I am…he comes from this very old, very rich family…the Collinses. They own this big shipping, fishing and canning corporation. They have this big mansion on the Maine coastline called Collinwood. My parents used to visit their relatives there with me in the summer when I was little. David was on his break from college—on and off—at the time. He used to play with me…and tell me stories."

"Liz?...Elizabeth? That is your name?" asked Barnabas.

"Yes, Elizabeth Blaine. I was named after my aunt, Elizabeth Collins Stoddard."

"And how are you related to Mrs. Stoddard, Ms. Blaine?"

"Well, my grandfather's sister…the one you seem to have known, Abigail, she married one of Aunt Liz's ancestors…a man by the name of Quentin Collins."

"Quentin!" The name had a palpable impact on Barnabas. "Do you know when this…marriage took place?"

"1907. My great-aunt Abigail was twenty-five…"

"Yes…"interrupted Barnabas. "She would have been."

"How…how did you know my great-aunt, Mr. Collins?"

There was a renewed confidence, a determination in Liz's voice.

Barnabas remained silent for a moment.

"What did David—Senator Collins tell you about me?"

"He said that…that…Oh, I almost can't believe it! But then, your teeth…"

"QUIT TORTURING US, LIZ!" screamed Kenny, arms impotently flailing up and down, an unconscious sign of his immense distress. "Just SPIT IT OUT!"

"Be quiet!" Barnabas' voice was not nearly as loud as Kenny's. But his eyes, now fixed on Kenny's, had a ferocious look more powerful than anything in his voice. Kenny now stood as still as a stone.

"Please, Ms. Blaine, continue." prompted Barnabas.

Liz took a deep breath, and then slowly exhaled.

"He told me you were a vampire, Mr. Collins."

"Did he, now?"

Barnabas' chin thrust forward, as if to assert his natural authority.

Suddenly, the floodlights positioned on either side of the Saint Andrew's Cross burst into life as brightly as the sun. Liz, Tanya and Kenny instinctively shut their eyes and covered them with their forearms. For Barnabas, there was no escape, and he screamed in agony.


	4. IV

**Old Loves, Old Lies**

**-by Baron Karza von Karnstein**

**-dedicated to Diane Neal**

**N.B. I do not own any of these characters. Dan Curtis owns all the Dark Shadows Characters. Joel Soissons and Patrick Lußier own all the Dracula II: Ascension Characters **

**IV**

"DAMMIT, ERIC!" blasted Liz "DIAL DOWN THE LIGHTS!"

Barnabas was still screaming. The lights did not dim.

"Now, now girlie!" boomed Eric's amplified and patronising voice from the table he had set up. "We're not here for you to look up your family tree. We have a business arrangement."

Barnabas' screams did not abate.

"e-RIC!" growled Liz. "Your damn lights are hurting MY EYES. If you hurt me, Lowell won't do squat for you."

"We'll see about that!" There was a sneer of contempt in Eric's voice, and no sign that he had been moved by Liz's warning. "If you want that thing to jump out and bite you, more power to you. But I'm attached to my mortality, and I am not going to jeopordise it just so you can ask grandpappy here about the past."

"He had every chance to attack us, Eric!" fired back Liz. "If that's what he wanted, don't you think he would have done that by now? Dial down the damn lights."

"You should listen to her, Eric." advised Lowell from the other room. "We can't collect any samples from our friend here if he's burned to a crisp."

Eric pondered this for a moment. "I suppose you're right, Lowell." he replied, as he twisted the dial on the switchboard counterclockwise until the candlepower of the floodlights was at a minimum.

Barnabas stopped screaming and started to heave. Liz ran towards him.

"Mr. Collins! Are you all right?

After several seconds of shallow breathing and grunts, Barnabas finally regained his voice.

"What…kind of…trickery…is this?"

"I'm sorry, Mr. Collins…" pleaded Liz "We found your bod—we found you in the basement of a bar. We started to examine your—you, and we saw your teeth—"

"You EXAMINED me? What…are you?"

"I'm a medical student, Mr. Collins."

"You were going to…try to cut me open…"

"I'm sorry…I…we thought if we could examine you, and learn about your kind…we could find a cure for…"

"A cure!" Barnabas was disheveled from his thrashing about in a useless attempt to escape Eric's sun-brite lights, but there was a something in his voice that told Liz he had recovered some of his composure. "You thought you could find a cure if you tried to dissect me like a dead animal..."

Liz looked down. The contrition also showed on Tanya and Kenny's faces.

"I'm sorry…that's all I can say…I'm sorry…"

"Liz wasn't in this alone, Mr. Collins." declared Tanya. "We were all in it with her."

Barnabas looked at the shapely blonde, and scrutinised her closely for the first time.

"How many of you are there?" he asked after a tense silence.

"There's Liz, and me…I'm Tanya…and this is Kenny…"

"Who is that fiend who tried to burn me to ashes?"

"S'Name's Eric." replied Kenny. "And he represents the money."

"Money!" a look of growing anger came across Barnabas' face "So, you were PAID to do this!"

"No, Mr. Collins no!" protested Liz, head now raised back up, eyes looking to Barnabas for forgiveness. "I mean, we got this anonymous phone call promising us money if we brought your body here from the morgue. But, it turned out that the money was for our pathology Professor, so he could…do research on you…to find a cure…"

"For what do you need this cure you keeping speaking about?" asked Barnabas.

"It's for Lowell…our Professor…he's dying…slowly dying."

"And you think that, by experimenting on me, you could stop that?"

"We don't know, Mr. Collins. But no one has ever scientifically studied a live vampire before…who knows what we would find in your blood, or in your DNA?"

"You are wrong, my dear!" proclaimed Barnabas with an air of certitude. "A doctor once examined my blood. All she could do was to allay the effects of my curse…temporarily."

"A Doctor?" Lowell's amplified voice boomed across the empty pool. He still had his lip mike, but now, he was back at the edge of the pool. "What was her name? Where did she publish her study?"

"You must be Lowell." commented Barnabas.

"What was her name, and where did she publish her study?" insisted Lowell.

"She didn't publish anything, Lowell." answered Barnabas "And her name will do you no good, since, by now, she is already long dead."

"Then you gotta tell us what she found out."

"I am not a doctor, Lowell. She told me things, but they meant not the slightest thing to me."

This brought a silence.

"Then we'll just have to draw some of your blood and do our own work."

"And if I refuse?"

"Then, boyo…" interjected Eric "We give you a nice suntan…"

"NO!" blurted out Liz, futilely throwing herself between Barnabas and Eric, but entirely unable to block out the floodlights, should Eric fire them up once more. "I won't let you do it!" She glared defiantly at Eric, and then shot a burning stare up at Lowell, as if trying by the fury of her eyes to deter them.

"Everybody hold on your horses!" Lowell's lethargic and annoyed voice dampened the room and the anxieties within it. "Eric, that won't be necessary. Our friend here…"

"He has a NAME, Lowell!" shouted Elizabeth, "He has a name!"

"I'm so sorry, Lizzie…Eric, Mr. Barnabas Collins here is going to cooperate with us voluntarily."

"And how can you be sure of that?" asked Barnabas.

"It's simple Mr. Collins. Lizzie over there is my lover. If I die, she will be heartbroken…"

"You sick bastard!" muttered Liz.

Barnabas heard this.

"It is all right, my child." he softly told Liz. Then, he raised his voice "Is this true, Ms. Blaine?"

Liz began to sob. Slowly, she turned to face Barnabas.

"Yes, it's true!" she said in a loud voice. Then, in a lower voice she added "The heartless bastard manipulated me."

"So you see, Mr. Collins, if you don't help me, you'll be killing poor Lizzie over here. We can't have that, now can we?"

Barnabas stared at Lowell.

"Very well, then…"


	5. V

**Old Loves, Old Lies**

**-by Baron Karza von Karnstein**

**-dedicated to Diane Neal**

**N.B. I do not own any of these characters. Dan Curtis owns all the Dark Shadows Characters. Joel Soissons and Patrick Lußier own all the Dracula II: Ascension Characters **

**V**

"Where's Luke?" asked Tanya.

"Out in my minivan." responded Lowell, as he used a disposable plastic pipette to siphon blood from the vial-full Liz had extracted from Barnabas. "I need more agar plates. Now, pay attention, this is important."

Lowell sat at the head of the rectangular folding table converted into an ersatz laboratory station. To his right lay a rack full of vials, the one with Barnabas' blood closest too him. To his left, a hand held DG-2 microscope. Directly in front of him lay a Petri dish holding an enlarged human heart. Further down the table, amidst other test-tube racks, tongue-depressors and swabs sealed in their sterile wrappers, and empty Petri dishes, lay the Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry machine, another DG-2, a couple of laptops and monitors. The laptops had speakers, and one of them was linked to the web cam Eric had set up in the empty pool.

"If I pour some of our subject's blood on this heart, taken from the victim of a myocardial infarction," Lowell continued, squeezing the rubber bulb attached to the pipette and spraying a small stream of blood unto the heart on the Petri dish, "The dead cells should come back to life."

Lowell put down the pipette, picked up and turned on the DG-2, and then looked through its camcorder-like screen at the newly-infused heart.

"Anything?" asked Eric, on Lowell's right, opposite Tanya. All of them, save Liz, had gathered in the back room. Kenny stood to Tanya's left, turned rightwards to face Lowell as he proceeded through the steps.

"Yes…Yes…YES! See for yourself!"

Lowell handed the DG-2 to Eric.

"I see a lot of movement…" commented Eric "What does it mean?"

"It means our friend's blood is the freaking Fountain of Youth, Eric! It means I don't have to waste away any more." There was an enthusiasm in Lowell's voice, but there was also something else, something vaguely malevolent which neither Kenny nor Tanya liked at all.

Eric put down the DG-2 and looked at Lowell.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, Lowell…" interjected Tanya "In physiology, we learned that tissues and organs all function as parts of self-regulating systems, that experiments on individual extracted tissue samples are meaningless unless they can be replicated in situ."

"In situ? What does that mean?" asked Eric.

"It means inside the living animal, where the tissue can interact with the blood and all the other organs and tissues." explained Kenny. "That way, we can find out if…well, first of all, if the immune system doesn't destroy it, and then if it has any negative side effects on other tissues, organs and systems."

"Correct, Kenny!" praised Lowell, with a hint of condescension. "I'll have to give you a couple of points on your final grade for your concise and accurate summary and your ability to deliver it on the spot. We need an experimental animal to test our friend's blood on…Something as human as possible…"

"Where are we going to get one of those?" asked Eric.

"Wait a minute!" interrupted Tanya. "Has anybody thought about the ethical implications here? I, mean…I'm not to sure about this…"

"You want to convene an ethics review panel, Tanya, is that it?" asked Lowell with a sardonic sneer. "What do you think they're gonna say about all of us holding our friend over there all trussed up, not to mention all of us conspiring to steal the body. That's a criminal offence, by the way. Ever try to get a medical license with a rap sheet?"

Tanya said nothing. She and Kenny just stared at Lowell in a powerless rage. They had known that bringing the body was against procedure, but, up until this moment they had believed Lowell would take responsibility. Their naiveté and the trap it had just led them into angered them.

"You would do that to Liz, Lowell?" Tanya's voice was calm, but everyone in the room could feel the fury within it.

"Relax, Tanya! I'm not going to say anything. Besides, we have our perfect experimental subject right here."

"Who?" asked Kenny.

"Me!" answered Lowell.

"What?" burst out Eric. "Lowell, are you sure?"

"Certitude is less common in this field, than you think Eric." asserted Lowell. "That's why you need someone to step up to the plate. And think of the implications, here. If we patent this—well think of all the people we could help."

"Patent this?" Kenny broke in. "You can't patent a natural substance."

"Ah, but our friend is hardly natural, is he?" retorted Lowell. "But let's worry about the fine print later. Hand me that syringe."

Tanya and Kenny made no move. Eric picked up the syringe, and handed it to Lowell.

"One small step for man…declared Lowell as he uncapped the syringe, and thrust the needle into the vial with Barnabas' blood.

"One giant step for manki—I mean humanity. Damn, but PC sure ruins some great quotes!" he continued as he thumbed back the plunger, drawing the blood into the barrel.

Luke held up the loaded syringe. His eyes were the picture of madness. Gripping the syringe by the barrel with the palm of his hand, he rolled up the sleeve of his other arm with his fingers. Then, he made to inject himself.

"Shouldn't you sterilise the area first?" asked Tanya. She had noticed that Lowell had not even bothered to push the plunger in slightly, to eliminate any air bubbles, before he made to inject himself.

"Not to worry, Tanya my dear!" answered Lowell. "This stuff'll kill any little punk-ass microbes that want to crash this party!"

Lowell found a vein, thrust the needle into it, and then pushed down on the plunger. Once the entirety of what had been in the barrel had been propelled into his circulatory system, he withdrew the syringe, and just dropped it on the table. All eyes were fixed on him.

For the first few seconds, there was no change. Then, a look of sheer panic, like that of a drowning man, came across Lowell's eyes. He started to shake uncontrollably.

"LOWELL!" cried out Eric.

But Lowell did not hear him. His eyes had rolled up and he was convulsing as if he was seizing. Kenny and Tanya stared on in terror, but made no move to intervene. Finally Lowell stopped convulsing, and sagged forward.

"LOOOOWELL!" screamed Eric, rushing to the limp form in the wheelchair. Tanya burst out of the back room and into the pool room. "LIZ! LIZ! Come HERE!" she shouted.

Liz, who had been facing the Saint Andrew's Cross in the empty pool, turned when she heard Tanya calling her. Seeing the urgency on her friend's face she rushed to her.


	6. VI

**Old Loves, Old Lies**

**-by Baron Karza von Karnstein**

**-dedicated to Diane Neal**

**N.B. I do not own any of these characters. Dan Curtis owns all the Dark Shadows Characters. Joel Soissons and Patrick Lußier own all the Dracula II: Ascension Characters **

**VI**

"LOWELL!" Before the last "L" had left her lips, Liz had burst forth from the door towards Lowell's unmoving body, grasping his left wrist in her left hand, fore-and middle finger feeling for a pulse, as her eyes looked to his chest to see if he was breathing.

"He's got a faint pulse…what happened?"

"He injected himself with that thing's blood!" blurted out Eric in a high pitch "Then, he started shaking and his eyes rolled up and..."

Liz ignored him. "Kenny!" she barked out, reaching into the left hip pocket of her jeans and yanking out her car keys, tossing them to Kenny "There's an atropine kit in the trunk of my car. Go get it!"

"Atropine? How do you…"

"Just GET IT, Kenny! NOW!"

Kenny darted off towards the exit.

"W-what's going on?" whimpered Eric.

"His pulse is shallow and slow. I want to be prepared if he goes into cardiac arrest."

"Are you sure you know what y-you're doing?"

"Do you want to call and ambulance and wait?"

"N-no! NO!"

"Then shut up and stay out of the way! Tanya, gimme an empty Petri dish!"

Tanya grabbed up an empty Petri dish and handed it to Liz, who held it half an inch away from Lowell's nose and mouth. Slowly, a small cloud of condensation built on the underside of the dish, and faded away as Lowell inspired. A little over five seconds later, another cloud began to form.

"Breathing is shallow and slow!"

"Is tha—is that good?" asked Eric.

"Better than no breathing, but not normal." replied Liz. "Lowell! Lowell! Can you hear me, baby? It's Liz! Talk to me honey! Talk to me!"

Lowell's breaths became deeper and more rapid. Seconds later, his eyelids began to twitch.

"Lowell! That's it, baby! Come back to me!"

Lowell's eyes opened tentatively at first, as if they were adjusting anew to the brightness of the lights. Then, they opened to their normal width and stayed open.

"Lowell!" Eric's outcry as he knelt to the right of the wheelchair was almost a keen.

"Give him room, to breathe Eric!" ordered Liz.

Eric backed away slightly.

"Thaa-That's…quite alright…Liz!" responded Lowell.

"Lowell! Baby!" Liz cried out in sudden joy. Then, the professional in her took over "Take it easy…slowly"

"Thank you, Liz. I'm sure you'd make a fine doctor." answered Lowell, who moved his own legs for the first time in years.

"My God…it's working! It's WORKING!"

Lowell grasped both sides of his wheelchair, and pushed himself up. Eric, Liz and Tanya looked on in amazement.

Lowell stood upright, looking down at his forearms as he rotated them and flexed his wrists.

"My God…It's WORKING!" he repeated.

"Lowell!" The name came out of Liz as a shriek of joy. "Oh, baby! I never thought this day would come!"

"Neither did I, Lizzie, neither did I!"

Lizzie stepped forward to embrace Lowell. At that moment, both Luke and Kenny burst through the outer door and into the room. Kenny had what looked to be four large, black, heavy-duty sleeping bags, holding the edges of two in each hand. Luke was holding a Heckler&Koch G36 Rifle with two 100-round drum magazines in place. What looked like a large tissue box was pinioned between his right upper arm and his rib cage. Both Kenny and Luke had very dark looks on their faces.

"I wouldn't go celebrating just yet, Liz!" declared Luke angrily.

"Luke! What's wrong?"

"I go into his minivan to get the agar plates he wanted, and I find like fifty of THESE!"

Luke took his left hand off the G36, pulled the large tissue box from between his right upper arm and ribcage, and tossed it to the front of the table, so all there could see.

Liz stepped forward, and picked up the box, looking at its side.

"Vacutainers?"

"Not just any vacuntainers, Liz! Look at the small, plain font under the title!"

"KCN—potassium cyanate—Luke, that's normal, if you want to preserve a blood sample."

"He's got fifty boxes in his minivan, Liz! That make's for a helluva lot of samples!"

"What…?" Liz looked down on the box, confused, but slowly beginning to understand.

"And there are these!" Kenny tossed two of the large, zippered bags to the head of the table. "Luke bumped into me with those boxes, and we figured something wasn't right. So, I jimmied open the trunk of Eric's car, and we see four of these!"

Tanya picked up one of the bags. "Are these…body bags?"

"Damn straight, that's what they are girl! And if that weren't bad enough, under them we find that big-ass gat Luke's holding. That's a drum magazine, ain't it Eric? Tell me, man, who d'y'all plan on filling them bags with? Huh?"

"Lowell…do you want to tell us what's going on?" Liz was still looking down at the box of vacutainers. Her voice was steady, and had an edge to it that said she wanted a straight answer.

Before he could answer, Eric moved towards Luke.

"Stay where you are, and let's see some hands!" shouted Luke.

"Oh, really, dear boy!" responded Eric, his voice full of contempt and dismissal. "You've seen to many movies. A little punk like you wouldn't have the bollocks to shoot another man!"

"Don't come any closer!" warned Luke, his eyes full of anger.

This brought a chuckle from Eric.

"Did you even release the safety catch of that 'gat?' " A smirk began to form on Eric's mouth as he mocked Luke.

Luke looked frantically down at the rifle in his hands. That he looked at the carrying, and not the fire selector above his thumb told Eric that Luke had not a clue where the 'safety catch' was. That was all the notice Eric needed. "Now!" he shouted.

In one fluid motion, Lowell snared up the nearest test-tube rack, and flung it at Luke, who instinctively dropped the G36 to protect his face. Eric was fast on the heels of the test tube rack, and tackled Luke.

Kenny turned to jump on top of Eric and rain a hail of fists upon him. Before he could move, Lowell, with one leg, kicked the rectangular table, which caught Kenny hard on the side. Kenny gave out a loud groan of pain, and fell.

"Lowell NO!" Liz threw herself at Lowell, as if her body would stop him. With one hand, Lowell shoved her against the concrete wall with such force that all the air wheezed out of her. Liz then collapsed in a heap. Tanya dashed to help her.

Eric had grabbed the G-36, and was standing above a Luke downed by a tornado of his well-aimed fists. He stepped back until he was far enough to cover both Luke and Kenny.

"Uuuuuhhhh…Lowell, you bastard! You broke my ribs!" moaned Kenny.

"It won't kill you Kenny. Now get your pathetic ass up. ALL OF YOU!"

"I…can't…" moaned Luke.

Eric thumbed the selector of the G36 from "safe" down to "full automatic" and let loose a burst which elicited cries of fright from Tanya and a recovering Liz.

"You heard the man! Now MOVE!"


	7. VII

**Old Loves, Old Lies**

**-by Baron Karza von Karnstein**

**-dedicated to Diane Neal**

**N.B. I do not own any of these characters. Dan Curtis owns all the Dark Shadows Characters. Joel Soissons and Patrick Lußier own all the Dracula II: Ascension Characters **

**VII**

Tanya was supporting Kenny, her right arm under his left shoulder. Kenny was favouring his tender right side, and he was not steady on his feet. Liz was also not too steady, but she managed to stay standing while her left arm was tucked under Luke's right shoulder, helping him to stand up. All four of them had their backs to the Saint Andrew's Cross in the empty pool, and were facing Lowell and the G-36 wielding-Eric, who both stood safely behind the table on which the switchbox for the floodlights sat. Lowell had already deactivated and packed the web cam.

"Why, Lowell, why?" asked Liz, a pained look upon her face.

"Why, my dear Lizzie? You can't figure it out?"

Lowell sneered

"I should really have a chat with the admissions department. People as dumb as you should have never been accepted to med school. Come to think of it, all women should be kept out of med school. You're all dumber than dogs, anyways!"

Lowell draped his right arm around Eric. Then he planted a huge kiss on Eric's left cheek.

"I mean, you are soooo easily satisfied. All it took was a PhD and my sad story to get you to bark like a dog for me!"

"Lowell, please!" begged Eric mockingly "I just ate!"

"Oh, I wouldn't knock it, Eric!" replied Lowell "It got us this far, didn't it?...yeah…I wonder what kind of tricks Tanya over there had to pull—or maybe I should say, 'turn?' –just to stay in the programme!"

"You're a BASTARD, Lowell!" Tanya spat out defiantly.

"You deserve to die!" added Liz with a cold look in her eyes.

"There you go again, Liz, with your hopes, theories and speculations!" laughed Lowell. "Women! You're also so emotional! It was a minor miracle that I managed to put up with you for so long! But, I'm not going to be doing any dying today. No, if there's any dying to be done here, Eric and I won't be the ones doing it."

Eric, leering sickly, slowly swept the G36 back and forth, covering and mentally torturing the four medical students within his arc.

"But, first, we still have a little business to take care of."

Lowell picked up the box of vacutainers which he had brought over from the back room and had dropped on the table. He tossed it towards Liz. The box landed at her feet.

"Our friend over there…"

"He has a NAME, damn you!"

"Oh, Liz, you're getting tiresome!" Lowell stated with annoyance "Our friend over there still has some product left in him. You, my darling, are going to make yourself useful again, and you are going to collect my merchandise for me."

"That's all this was ever was to you, Lowell?" asked Liz "A chance to make a fast buck?"

"Have you ever tried to live on a Professor's salary, Liz? Oh, why am I asking? Of course you did! You were mooching of off ME until I made you get that job at the morgue. But it was never your concern, was it? You never had to pay for the bills!

"But, to answer your question Liz, no, it wasn't all about the money. Remember the other day in class, how I was talking about indulging in the conceit that we will live forever? Well, I don't have to 'indulge' any more! Hell, I AM going to live forever now! And if you're polite enough, I just might let you in on it—NOT!"

This brought a sick laugh from Eric.

"Yeah, that was a good one, now, wasn't it, Gov?"

The smile disappeared from Lowell's face.

"Alright! Enough! Lizzie, you know what to do!"

"Go screw yourself, Lowell!"

"Screw myself? Nooo. Liz! Screw LUKE!"

Eric whipped the G36 sideways until its barrel was trained on Luke.

"No!...No! Don't hurt him!"

"Ha-ha! I KNEW there was something between you two. And you give ME dirty looks for what I'm doing to you!"

"Tell him to point the gun away, Lowell, and I'll get you what you want."

"Sounds fair enough, wouldn't you say, Eric?"

"Sounds fair, Lowell. But let me turn up the lights first. No use in having our friend bite that bitch before she gets our merchandise, now is there?"

"If you turn the lights all the way up," interjected Liz, "I won't be able to see what I'm doing!"

"You have to admit she has a point." commented Eric. "Fair enough, I'll just turn 'em up three-quarters of the way."

Lowell grunted. "Let me just get a pair of sunglasses on, first. No use in me ruining my twenty-twenties."

Lowell donned sunglasses. So did Eric, albeit one-handedly. Neither of them made any move to toss a pair to Liz, who would also be caught in the glare of the floodlights.

Eric began to turn the dial on the switchbox clockwise. He stopped before he had turned it halfway.

"What the bloody hell?"

Lowell and Eric ripped off their sunglasses. The four medical students, who had been facing the Lowell and Eric, turned to face the Saint Andrew's Cross.

The Cross was bare. The restraints had been undone.

Before anyone could react further, there were two light crashing sounds, like that of shattering glass. Then the floodlights went completely dark.

"So!" Barnabas' voice filled the room "You thought it would be that simple!"

Eric whirled around to face the door at the other end of the pool, thinking Barnabas was there, speaking through Lowell's lip mike. He loosed off a long burst from the G36.

"Tha-that should have nailed the wanker! Those were silver bullets."

There were two dull, smacking sounds in rapid succession, and the G36 spun rightwards, and out of Eric's hands. Then double-cough of two rounds fired from a silenced gun echoed across the pool.

Eric whirled to his left to face this new threat. Lowell's eyes followed him.

A tall man, whose dark sideburns looked like natural extensions of his dark, knit watch cap, was looking down on them from the side of the pool. He had what looked like a long-barreled rifle behind a thick cylindre pointed in the direction of Lowell and Eric.

"Where are your silver bullets NOW, Eric?" Barnabas' voice mocked, booming across the pool.

"Why don't you come down HERE and tell that to us, Collins?" roared Lowell.

"Ah..I see that you have finally learned my name!" answered Barnabas' voice. "But you have learned so little of your powers. I will have to show you."

Lowell felt a sharp gust of wind blow by him, from right to left. In a blur, Eric was gone from Lowell's side, but his screams filled the room.

Lowell turned to his left. He saw that Barnabas was holding Eric by the jaw and the left arm, lifting him painfully off the ground by the jaw, pushing the jaw backwards and backwards to expose his neck before the terrified quartet of medical students

"No!" screamed Lowell.

But it was too late. Barnabas sank his fangs into Eric's neck, ignoring his screams, and those of Lowell and Tanya. Kenny, having regained some of his footing, held tightly on to Tanya. Luke had found a new strength, and, had turned Liz around, away from the sight of Barnabas draining the blood out of Eric, and pressing her up against his shoulder.

Lowell jumped from the floor onto the table in a single bound. He was ready to jump on Barnabas and pull him off Luke when he felt two strong punches to his lower leg and lost his balance.

"Well, well…" began the sideburned figure at the side of the pool in a calm Southern drawl, as he lowered his rifle. "Barnabas is right. You still have a lot to learn!"

With a growl, Lowell got back to his feet. Then he hurled himself up at the taunting rifleman. Milliseconds later, he screamed out in pain, as he plummeted back to the floor of the pool. The sideburned shooter had pulled out a shiny metallic cross, which had stopped Lowell in mid-flight.

Barnabas dropped Eric's lifeless body to the ground. With Eric's blood streaking the left side of his chin, he turned to the frightened quartet that had watched him.

"Do any of you have a cross?" he asked

Luke raised his hand. "I do…"

"Get it ready!" ordered Barnabas "He might come to at any moment."

Barnabas then turned towards Lowell. He walked over, picked up the crumpled, moaning form, and began to drag it over to where the others were. Then he looked up at the sideburned sharpshooter whose cross had brought Lowell down.

"Quentin, would you come down here?"

"I'd be delighted, Barnabas!" responded Quentin, turning towards the stairs.

Quentin had joined the others by the time Barnabas had dragged the sagging, limp Lowell over to the spot where the floodlights had earlier shone down excruciatingly upon him. Barnabas hissed in a sharp intake of breath.

"Could you put that away, Sir? I can handle these two from here!"

"Do it, Luke."

"No, Liz! I don't trust this one, or his friend, either!"

"Luke, he had the perfect chance to go after one of us after he took out Eric. If that's what he wanted to do, would he have told you to pull out your cross in the first place?"

This placated Luke. He pocketed his cross.

"Thank you…Luke, is it?"

"Yes…your Barna—Mr. Collins."

"Please! Call me Barnabas! And let me introduce to you my cousin Quentin!"

"How do you do?" asked Quentin, as he bowed slightly.

"Quentin!" exclaimed Liz. "My grandfather's sister was married to a Quentin Collins!"

Quentin looked at Liz, focusing closely on her face for the first time. A look of astonishment swept across his face, followed by a look of sadness.

"The resemblance is…striking…if it weren't for the clothes…"

"Yes, I know, Mr. Collins—"

"Please, Ma'am, it's Quentin. You wouldn't want to mix me up with my dear cousin, here, now would you?" The traces of a smile began to appear on Quentin's face.

"Thank you…Quentin—as I was saying, I saw the photographs…you look EXACTLY like the man who married my great-aunt Abigail!"

"I did marry Abigail, Ms.?"

"Blaine, Liz Blaine. Please call me Liz."

"Thank you, Liz! I did marry Abigail, but that was a long, long time ago…"

"What? But how? Are you a vampire too?"

"What the hell is going on here?" demanded Luke.

"There will be time for that later!" interceded Barnabas. "Right now, we have more pressing matters to attend to. Quentin, did you bring that hatchet you are so fond of?"

"Sure di—"

Before he could finish his sentence, Eric suddenly came to, opened his eyes, and lunged at Quentin.


	8. VIII

**Old Loves, Old Lies**

**-by Baron Karza von Karnstein**

**-dedicated to Diane Neal**

**N.B. I do not own any of these characters. Dan Curtis owns all the Dark Shadows Characters. Joel Soissons and Patrick Lußier own all the Dracula II: Ascension Characters **

**VIII**

Eric forced Quentin's head back, and sank his fangs into the sideburned man's neck. But just as quickly as he had fallen upon Quentin, he recoiled away screaming, smoke flowing up from his burning mouth, two long, thing burns streaking his left lower lip and chin where Quentin's blood should have been.

Quentin staggered back, left hand instinctively pressing on his savaged neck. He had been reaching for the small of his back with his right hand when Eric attacked him. Now, he whipped his right hand forward, tossing something to Barnabas so fast that it was impossible for the four medical students to see anything but a glinting blur. "Here, Barnabas!" he shouted.

Barnabas deftly caught with his right hand what Quentin had tossed to him. Liz and the rest could now see that it was what looked to be an authentic Cherokee hatchet.

Barnabas grabbed Eric by the hair with his left hand, brought his right arm back, and in a single, fluid motion, separated Eric's head from his shoulders. The body fell to the ground. Barnabas tossed Eric's head to where Lowell lay conscious, but in pain.

Lowell screamed when he saw Eric's head. He rolled onto his belly and propped himself push-up style on his knuckles, his eyes scanning for someone on whom to take out the combination of fear and rage which just grabbed him.

Luke pulled out his cross, and jumped forward to confront Lowell. The cross sent fresh jolts of sharp and excruciating pain down Lowell's body. He turned his face away, shielding it with his left arm, and tried to crawl away. His path was blocked, and his pain intensified, by Quentin who had pulled out his own shiny metallic cross. Lowell screamed impotently in agony.

"PLEASE, PLEASE! GIVE ME A BREEEEEAAAAAAAKKKK!" came the pitiful plea.

"Would you have been so merciful to these innocent souls, Lowell?" Barnabas' voice was cold and without pity.

"Yeah, Lowell, would you have given US a break?" asked Liz, her voice as merciless as that of Barnabas.

"PLEEEEEEASE! Make it STOOPP!" cried Lowell.

"There's only one way that's gonna happen!" declared Quentin. "Barnabas? Check inside Eric's coat, in the left of his waistband. I thought I saw the outline of a gun there."

"He HAS a gun!" chimed in Kenny, moving towards Eric's headless body. "The bastard pointed it at us."

Kenny rolled over Eric's headless corpse, pulled back the left side of the leather jacket and pulled out Eric's Smith&Wesson. "Yep! Right here."

"May I see it?" asked Barnabas, transferring the hatchet to his left hand.

Kenny handed the S&W to Barnabas. Barnabas released the magazine catch, pulled out the magazine with the thumb and forefinger of his left hand, and looked at the first round.

"Silver…the fiends!"

"What do you mean, Barnabas?" asked Tanya.

"I'll explain later." answered Barnabas, replacing the magazine, and drawing the slide back to verify that there was a round in the chamber. "It is time to dispatch this despicable creature to the master who controlled his heart long before he ever became like me."

Barnabas lifted the S&W and pointed it at Lowell. Liz walked up to him.

"Barnabas…if I may…allow me!"

Barnabas gave her the gun.

"Step aside, Luke!"

"But, Liz…"

"Just DO IT!"

Luke stepped back. Lowell gave a grunt of relief.

"Oh, Lizzie, thank you! Thank you sooo much! I knew you would come back to me!"

"Shut up, Lowell!" snapped Liz, forcing Lowell to look up at her."

"This is too kind for you after everything you tried to do!"

Lowell may not have felt the agony of Luke's cross anymore, but he was still too weak to stand up. The best he could do was prop himself up onto his knees, and then straighten his back.

"Lizzie, wait—"

The crack of the report of the S&W interrupted Lowell. Lowell screamed in pain as the bullet crashed into his chest. But Liz did not stop. She fired bullet after bullet after bullet into Lowell, until the slide of the S&W was locked back after the last round, and there were eight more spent cartridge cases on the floor accompanying the one from her first shot.

Lowell's lifeless head and torso sagged backwards, straining the cartilage of his now unfeeling knees.

Barnabas shifted the hatchet to his right hand as he walked over to Lowell's body. As he did with Eric, he held Lowell's head back by the hair with his left hand, and detached head from body with a swift, strong stroke of the hatchet with his right hand and arm. He turned to the others and said "It is done."


	9. IX

**Old Loves, Old Lies**

**-by Baron Karza von Karnstein**

**-dedicated to Diane Neal**

**N.B. I do not own any of these characters. Dan Curtis owns all the Dark Shadows Characters. Joel Soissons and Patrick Lußier own all the Dracula II: Ascension Characters **

**IX**

"Yeah, that's the last of our two friends!" affirmed Quentin as he approached Lowell's remains. "They won't bother anyone anytime soon."

"Your neck, man!" exclaimed Kenny. "Eric bit you. I saw him sink his fangs into you. But…there's not a mark on you!"

"Yeah, you can thank my curse for that." answered Quentin. "Somewhere there's this painting of me. It has nasty gashes on the left side of the neck, where Eric bit me. The painting is bleeding—or WAS bleeding I should say, it must have stopped by now. As for me, I feel the pain, but I don't bear the scars. Been like that for over a century now."

"So you're…not a vampire." concluded Liz.

Quentin looked at her, fresh pain forming in his eyes. "No, Liz, I am not. But, it doesn't take a silver bullet or a cross, or even a vampire's bite to make me feel pain."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…"

Quentin held up his hand "That's quite alright, Ma'am! You just look so much like Abigail…"

"You knew her, didn't you? You began to say you did marry her…"

"I did indeed, before our friends interrupted us."

"But…how?"

"It's a long story."

"But Senator Collins never told me anything. Yet, he told me all about Barnabas…"

"Senator Collins wouldn't tell you about me, Liz. We were friends—we're still friends, only, I rarely get to see him these days. So, he would want to protect me. But, Barnabas, over here…well, I wouldn't exactly call their relationship 'friendly.'"

"Regrettably, so." commented Barnabas, I only knew Dav—the Senator when he was just a boy. There were times…"

Barnabas hesitated and looked away.

"There were times I had to make decisions for him…decisions which were necessary, but painful."

"You knew the Senator too, Barnabas?"

"Yes, Liz, I did…although, to me he was just David Collins. I imagine I'll have to get used to calling him 'Senator' Collins."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Can somebody explain to me what's going on here?" interjected Luke.

"Barnabas and Quentin are distant relatives of Liz, Luke…" answered Tanya.

"Yeah, Luke, remember I told you how, when I was I kid, I used to visit my relatives who had this big mansion in Maine?"

Luke stared at Liz in astonishment.

"You mean…you knew you were related…to a VAMPIRE?"

"No, Luke, I'm related to Senator David Collins of Maine. I told you about him, remember? He was the Governor before he ran for Senate?"

"Yeah, you said something about that!" said Luke hurriedly. "But what does that have to do…"

"Let me finish, Luke, please!" pleaded Liz. "My cousin, the Senator, he was in his twenties when I was six or seven. And he told me all sorts of stories about the great Barnabas Collins, the vampire who still haunted this old, run down house on the estate. I didn't believe him. In fact, I didn't know he was telling the truth until Barnabas here woke up, and we started talking…"

Luke closed his eyes and began to rapidly shake his head.

"I…I can't believe this! We're standing here talking about you talking to a vampire. Hell, we're standing here talking about you talking to a vampire WITH the vampire, AND his—weird immortal cousin...right here listening to us! It just makes no sense! I mean…"

Luke looked at Barnabas, then at Quentin.

"I mean, I'm thankful that you helped us out of this mess with Lowell and Eric, don't get me wrong! I don't want you to think I'm ungrateful or anything! But…but…it just doesn't make sense! I'm wondering if this isn't all just a funky trip!"

"A trip?" asked Barnabas.

"Ah yes, a trip!" explained Quentin. "That's what the kids about thirty-five years ago started calling it when they were enjoying the euphoric effects of some hallucinogenic drugs."

"Ah…I see!" declared Barnabas, "Well, Luke, I don't know if you have recently partaken of any hallucinogenic substances, but let me assure you, what you see and what you saw here tonight is all very real indeed!"

"Well, don't take this the wrong way, Barnabas, but you vampires don't exactly have a good rep, you know?"

"A good what?"

"Rep…reputation."

"Oh…is that so?"

"I can see where you're coming from, Luke." interjected Quentin. "I saw some of the movies…Nosferatu…Dracula…in fact, I saw them when they first came out in the '20's and '30's. Those are just stories. Barnabas is nothing like those characters..."

"Nosfer—Dracula?" enquired Barnabas, his eye muscles contracted in confusion.

"Figments of some writer's imagination, Barnabas. Pretty one-dimensional too, and generated just to scare people. Believe it or not, in this century and the last, there are people who pay great sums of money just to be frightened...

"But, as I was saying, Luke, Barnabas is nothing like that. He didn't seek out the devil or choose to become what he is. He became a vampire because of a curse placed upon him by a jealous and vengeful witch. He can't control his urges—which is why he fed on poor Eric over there—but when he's satiated, he actually uses his powers to try to help people. In fact, when I first met him, he tried to help me escape my curse…"

"The curse…of immortality?" asked Liz.

"No. I was cursed as a werewolf by a gypsy woman who was, unbeknownst to me at the time, my first sister-in-law. She put the curse of the werewolf on me."

"You…first sister-in-law?" There was a hard edge to Liz's voice now "And why did she turn you into a werewolf?"

Some of the energy ebbed out of Quentin when he heard Liz's second two questions.

"This was eight years before I met Abigail, Liz, and ten years before I married her. I was a foolish, careless and callous young man in my youth. I did many heartless things and hurt many people. I realize now, that I probably had that coming."

"But, with Abigail…" began Liz "…I remember my grandfather telling me she died of a broken heart…did you break her heart, Quentin? Or did you kill her when you turned into a werewolf."

"I did break her heart, yes, Liz. But I didn't kill her when I turned into a werewolf, simply because by the time I met Abigail, I had ceased changing every time the full moon came out…"

"That…painting you mentioned?"

"Yes, that painting. It's a long story, but Barnabas helped me find this artist who painted a portrait of me that would turn into a werewolf in my stead every full moon."

"Sounds so…Dorian Greyish…" commented Tanya.

"Indeed it does." responded Quentin. In fact, the artist who painted my portrait had known Oscar Wilde before he wrote his book in 1890.

"But, to get back to your question, Liz, yes, I did break Abigail's heart. You see, before I was afflicted with this curse, my first wife had given birth to twins, a boy and a girl. The boy died in infancy, but the girl lived on. And the curse of the werewolf would live on with all of her—and my—male descendants. I felt an obligation to her, but, because of the circumstances of her birth and her mother's death, I could not reveal myself. I had to send her money in private…

"One day, Abigail found out. She thought my daughter was another woman. She was humiliated. She confronted me. I told her the truth about my daughter. It was as if I had given Abigail the best gift in the world. She had wanted children so badly, but she was never able to conceive with me. She wanted to adopt my daughter and help raise her as her own.

"But I could not, and I could not explain to Abigail why this was, at least not at first. But she kept at it. Then, one day, she broke me down, and I told her everything…about the curse, about the painting…about how she would grow old and die, yet I would remain unchanged since the day we first met.

"It was a great shock to Abigail at first. But she recovered quickly. She pledged to stay loyally by my side as long as she could. And she carried out her promise. I tell you, Liz, a man could not have asked for a better wife! Those thirty years I remember with her were among the best of my life"

"Then…how did you break her heart?"

Quentin looked down. After a moment or two, he began again.

"Thirty years after we were married, I began to lose my mind. I could no longer deal with the fact that I was cursed to outlive all of those I loved. I had gotten so unhinged, that I lost my memory for many years. I only found it when I saw Barnabas again. By that time, Abigail had been dead for some twenty years."

"Did you ever find out how she died?" asked Liz.

"One day, Quentin, in a state of fugue, disappeared from Collinwood." answered Barnabas. "His disappearance shattered Abigail. She went on living for another twenty years, but she was never the same. But…relatives of mine who knew her during that era recall that she was still an incredibly sweet, profoundly kind person. In fact, it was only much later…decades after she died…that we found out about her heartbreak."

"Thank you…for sharing that with me…both of you…I never knew much about Great-Aunt Abigail, so I appreciate what you just told me.

"But, Barnabas, you're from Maine…what are you doing all the way down here in New Orleans…I mean, we found you in the basement a bar in New Orleans East…you said something about being able to understand where"

"How did you find me? And do you remember exactly where you found me?"

"Uh…I found you, actually…" Luke volunteered. "And yeah, I still have the run slip, so it should have the address on it."

"The…run…slip?"

"Yeah…Lizzie and I work for the Coroner's office. It helps to pay the bills. I drive around in with the Coroner in his wagon…"

"A WAGON! You still use wagons in this time?

"That's what we call it. It's really a modified ambulance. So, we drive around, and, when we get a call from the police, pick up bodies of people who died in accidents, or in suspicious deaths. For each body, we have to fill out lotsa paperwork, saying where we found it, how we found it…one of the copies of that is called the run slip. We keep it in our records."

"I see…this run slip…do you have it on your person?"

"It's at the office. I can get it if you want…"

"Yes, I would like that very much."

Lizzie's eyes narrowed, as if to focus. There was a dawning understanding in them.

"You think that information will help you figure out why you're here? But you said you could understand where…"

"Where is no mystery, Liz" responded Barnabas. "I am looking for a woman I love. I have reason to believe that she lived in this city when it was still under French suzerainty. But that was years ago…"

"Yeah, like centuries ago, man!" quipped Kenny. "Somehow you ended up in the wrong time."

"But how did Quentin know to find you here?" asked Tanya "And in the nick of time, too?"

"It's simple." replied Quentin "Ever hear of I Ching?"

"The little Chinese wands that are supposed to help you change yourself?" tried Luke.

"Yeah, those. I first came across them years ago in the Orient—or, in East Asia, we would say in this era. I could never get much out of them. But Barnabas, here, he figured out a way to use them to travel to different times. In fact, that's how we first met. But this is the first time they took him to the future instead of the past."

"But how did you know he had gone to the future?"

"Simple. When you master I Ching enough to use it effectively, your body goes into a trance while, in Barnabas' case at least, your soul travels back in time. Well, this time his body disappeared in the present—or OUR present at the time. This had happened before, so we held a séance to try to communicate with Barnabas' spirit so we could find out what had happened. But, the spirits that talked to us told us that Barnabas wasn't among them, which meant that he was still alive.

"Before he used the I Ching, Barnabas had told me that he believed this woman had lived in New Orleans, and I had a feeling I would find Barnabas here eventually. So, I moved here. About a year and a half ago I heard our friend Lowell over there on one of those new TV channels, talking about vampires..."

"Examining Dracula!" exclaimed Liz "I remember…I helped him film his part in that show. He was explaining the hematopathology of historical cases involving what were thought to be 'vampires.'"

"Yes, Examining Dracula!" confirmed Quentin. "The way he talked, I sensed that he had an unhealthy curiosity in the subject of vampirism. It was something he said about "indulging in the conceit that you will live forever…"

"Yeah!" snorted Liz. "That was his standard line!"

"So," continued Quentin, "I tracked him down. I found out that he was a Professor at the local medical school. I also found out that he had frequent contacts with this Eric character. I found a way of listening into their conversations. Almost all they talked about—WHEN they were talking, that is—"

Quentin's last qualification brought a wince to Liz.

"Please, Quentin spare us the details!" begged Barnabas "Lowell had deceived Liz into thinking he loved her, and he was just using her to get what he want the way I once used Maggie…"

"I overheard that, earlier." stated Quentin. "I am sorry Liz, I didn't mean to—"

"It's alright, Quentin! I'm just still so angry with myself for having been suckered…"

"That's quite natural, my dear. It slowly dissipates with time. But, as I was saying, all they could talk about was how the profit potential of marketing a vampire's blood to a pharmaceutical concern. I had a feeling that they would eventually come across Barnabas…so I watched them closely until yesterday. Then, they almost completely dropped off the grid…"

"Almost?" asked Luke

"Eric's car has online tracking. It was no great trick to track him down to here."

"It was a good thing you found us when you did!" exclaimed Tanya.

"Oh, I didn't do much really…and I found you a little earlier than when I actually intervened. You see these windows over there?"

Quentin pointed to the windows at the sides of the pool.

"I saw the lights from there. I found one panel that was already broken. I got in, and I saw Barnabas. I was ready to call out his name, but he spoke to me first."

"How come we didn't hear anything?" Kenny wanted to know.

"All that yelling going on in that room you were all in, you wouldn't have heard a herd of elephants. Besides, that's one of Barnabas' powers. He can talk to you without his throat uttering a sound, and without anyone else hearing a word of it. He told me what was going on…"

"And then, you came down and freed him…" Liz attempted to complete Quentin's sentence.

"No, he actually freed himself. That's another one of his powers. He can disappear like Houdini, just so long as there are no crosses or sunlight to stop him. Those little iron restraints can't hold him. In fact, he just slipped out of them to scare the devil out of Eric and Lowell when they clapped eyes on them."

"Well, thank God you did!" commented Tanya. "I'm scared to even think of what they would have done to us if you hadn't intervened"

"It is a fate to be avoided, Tanya." advised Barnabas. "Do you remember when I told you the bullets in Eric's pistol were silver? You asked what that meant, but I rudely cut you off."

"Oh, no offence taken, Barnabas!" said Tanya "After you saved our lives, you have all the right in the world to be rude to us for putting you in this position in the first place."

"Well, you didn't really have as say in, as you put it, 'putting me in this position.' And I deplore rudeness just as much as I deplore violence. If I will not tolerate it in others, I can hardly allow myself to be rude without at least apologizing for it."

"Why, thank you, Barnabas! You're a very sweet man." Tanya placed a hand on Barnabas' forearm.

"You're too kind, my dear!" observed Barnabas with a smile. Then his face grew sombre.

"But, after hearing Lowell brag about his plans for self-aggrandisement, I realised that my blood alone would not suffice for his scheme. No, he would have forced those of you he didn't kill right away to partake of my blood. Then, after he had somehow immobilized you, and after you had turned just as he did, he would have drawn your blood into his tubes, and then murdered you—and me—with all those silver bullets. THAT was the plan of the fiend!"

There was a fury in Liz's eyes now.

"I wish I made him suffer more!"

"Oh, you needn't worry about that!" assured Barnabas, with a knowing smile "Where what's left of his soul is going, he will be rewarded for his deeds in full measure!"

"But…there were nine bullets in that pistol…"observed Luke "and I don't know HOW many in that machine gun…"

"Two hundred." answered Quentin "less the ones that were shot in that other room and the ten or fifteen or so Eric shot at what he thought was Barnabas."

"Well, yeah, man, but the point is that they were all silver." emphasized Kenny. How does anyone get that much silver in such a short time?"

"Friend Eric over there has been living in New Orleans about five years now, just about as long as Lowell has taught at that school of yours. In those five years, there were periodic burglaries—and some robberies—wherein many a decent citizen of this fair city was deprived of his silver…"

"How do you know so much about what Lowell and Eric were doing?" asked Liz.

"Ah, that's simple, my dear. You see, after I had lost my memory in the 1930's, I began looking for clues to who I was. I ended up in New York, working for this detective. I had nary a penny to my name at the time, but the detective found that I had a sharp mind and what he called 'a disposition towards inquisitiveness.' I worked for him for a salary, while he would, in his spare time, try to help me figure out who I was. Then the war came. He was drafted, I volunteered. He was killed in a secret mission in Europe. I took over the agency after the war. So, you can say that detective work has become almost second nature to me."

"For example, I noticed that Liz has a band-aid on her right forefinger, and that she keeps trying to hide it, but after a few minutes she forgets about it, and lets her right hand out in plain sight. Then, she remembers again, and either crosses her arms or folds the fingers of her right hand, so the rest of us don't see the band-aid."

"Yeaahh!" remembered Luke "You cut yourself on the—on Barnabas' fang when you looked at his teeth for me!"

Liz looked down, pulling her right hand behind her.

"You have…a…good gift for observation…Quentin!"

"Liz…" began Barnabas with a gentle, soothing voice, "what are you afraid of?"

"It's just…I felt something changing in me ever since I cut myself on your—on you! It's like there's this…thing inside of me that wants to take over…something scary!"

"Perhaps some of my saliva entered your bloodstream when my fang cut your finger," offered Barnabas, "But don't be afraid. This…has happened before…you are a strong young lady. Your body and soul will fight this infection, and you will triumph."

"You say that…with such certainty…" tentatively replied Liz. "I don't feel so certain…"

"How long ago did you cut yourself?" asked Barnabas.

"Just this morning."

"Then these are your first hours. This is new and frightening to you. It will pass. Trust me."

Liz was looking into Barnabas' eyes now. She found some comfort in them. It was just like when they first looked into each other's eyes. Liz knew this man would never harm her.

"I do trust you, Barnabas…But…"

Liz looked down at her watch.

"It's two-forty-five! The sun is going to start coming up around five-thirty. We have less than three hours to find you a coffin."

A look of fear and concern swept across Barnabas' face.

"Or someplace where the light of the sun will never penetrate." he added.

"I know just the place." declared Quentin. "It's about half-an hour's drive from here."

"Well, you'd better get moving then!" suggested Liz "And don't tell us where it is. The less we know about that, the better."

"You wish to be rid of us so soon?" asked Barnabas.

"No, not at all! I'm sorry if it came out like that. I didn't mean that at all! I DON'T want to be rid of you two. You're family to me. In fact, I would very much like to see you again. But, the less I, or any of us, know about where you're holed up, the less we can be forced to give away if someone interrogates us."

"A very thoughtful—and far-thinking young lady!" noted Quentin "And one with a gentle heart. You're very much like Abigail in that way, Liz."

"From what you've told me of her, Quentin, I take that as a compliment!"

Liz approached Quentin, embraced him, and gave him a peck on the cheek. Then she turned to Barnabas, hugged him, stroked his back, and gave him a similar peck on the cheek.

"Yeah…man, thanks for saving our butts!" said Kenny as he stepped forward and took Quentin's hand.

"Yeah, thanks you guys!" chimed in Tanya, embracing Barnabas after Liz let him go, and then embracing Quentin.

"We all owe you one!" declared Luke, as he took Barnabas' hand.

"Oh, you owe us nothing!" responded Barnabas. "I—we would have done the same for any people of good will who were so monstrously deceived and set up for betrayal."

"Yeah," commented Liz, as Quentin stepped back, making to head towards the steps of the empty pool, "I can't believe I was sooo STUPID to believe Lowell loved me!"

"Ah, but you must not blame yourself, my dear!" retorted Barnabas. "Old loves, they die hard. But old lies, they die harder."


End file.
